Beyond Measuring the Human Resources Management-Organizational Performance Link: Applying Critical Realist Meta-Theory

By A. Hesketh, S. Fleetwood. 2006

147 citations recorded by the source corpus.

One response to the possible outsourcing of the human resource (HR) function is to turn to ‘science’ and seek to demonstrate an empirical association between HR practices and increased organizational performance. This paper critically examines the shortcomings of the ‘scientific’ approach by first, reviewing the three distinctive versions of research on the Human Resources Management (HRM)-Performance link in an attempt to demonstrate their commitment to a common ‘scientific’ meta-theory. Second, we use critical realism to demonstrate: (1) that theoretical underdevelopment and lack of explanatory power are encouraged by the use of an inappropriate ‘scientific’ meta-theory; (2) the possibility of meta-theorizing the causal connection between HRM and performance without seeking statistical associations; and (3) how all this is in-keeping with Institutional theory. Finally, all of this is achieved by inserting evidence from interviews with HR professionals to demonstrate not only that they are sceptical of the ‘scientific’ approach, but also that they hold views of the world not dissimilar to the critical realist approach we advocate.

Subfields: General Health Professions, Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/74ef87b9ee1c6f34a411986adac0ba6a3fffbab8

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In General Health Professions

In Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management

In Sociology and Political Science

Citations in the corpus

HRM and Performance: Achievements, Methodological Issues and Prospects (2009, background): “…ranging from highly sophisticated quantitative multilevel (see Becker and Gerhart, 1996; Becker and Huselid, 1998; Gerhart et al., 2000), or tree analysis (Guest et al., 2004), to in-depth case-studies aimed at understanding the underlying processes and mechanisms (see Hesketh and Fleetwood, 2006).”
CRAFTING QUALITATIVE RESEARCH: MORGAN AND SMIRCICH 30 YEARS ON. (2010, unknown): “(Hesketh & Fleetwood, 2006, p. 689.”
High-performance work systems and performance of French small- and medium-sized enterprises: examining causal order (2011, background): “They argued that although recent qualitative research have shown the different ways how the same formal HRM policies are operated in different class (Crompton 2006 ) and organizational contexts (Hesketh and Fleetwood 2006 ) – something which is unlikely to be picked up in WERS, quantitative survey”
The paradox of employee psychological well-being practices: an integrative literature review and new directions for research (2019, unknown): “For example, Poole and Van de Ven (1989) attempted to develop a metatheory of innovation, while Hesketh and Fleetwood (2006) adopted critical realism as a metatheory in examining the link between HRM and performance.”